THE MORNING LINE
DATE: Tuesday, November 24, 2015
FROM: Melissa Cohen, Michelle Farabaugh
PAGES: 14, including this page.
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November 23, 2015
‘Dames at Sea’ Will Close on Broadway
By Lorne Manly
“Dames at Sea,” which in October finally got its Broadway premieren early 50 years after its original Off Off Broadway production, will take its final bow at the Helen Hayes Theater on Jan. 3.
The musical, a perky, loving send-up of 1930s movies musicals with plenty of corny jokes, received a few strong reviews, but most were mixed or disappointed. And despite playing at the smallest Broadway house, “Dames at Sea” in a number of recent weeks struggled to fill more than 65 percent of the theater.
When the show closes, it will have played 32 preview and 85 regular performances. In announcing the closing, the producers said they planned a national tour of the musical in 2017.
The departure of “Dames at Sea” opens up the Helen Hayes for a show — very likely a play — still looking for a Broadway home this season. Among the possibilities is Stephen Karam’s “The Humans,” which concludes its Off Broadway run on Jan. 3.
November 23, 2015 ‘Motown’ Will Return to Broadway Next Summer
By Lorne Manly
From left, Jawan Jackson, Ephraim Sykes, Julius Thomas III, Donald Webber Jr. and Jesse Nager in "Motown the Musical" at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater in 2013.Credit Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
As promised by its producers, “Motown: The Musical” will return to Broadway next summer just a year and half after its first New York run.
More surprising is where the show will land: the Nederlander Theater, where “Disaster!,” a parody of 1970s disaster movies, will have opened just a few months earlier.
“Disaster!” affectionately sends up such movies as “The Poseidon Adventure” and “Earthquake” as tragedies strike the occupants of a floating nightclub-casino, who must also fend off musical earworms of the era like “Don’t Cry Out Loud” and “Feelings.”
The musical, which stars Tony Award winners Roger Bart and Faith Prince with a book by Seth Rudetsky and Jack Plotnick, opens on March 8. Last week, as tickets went on sale, the show announced it was a limited run through July 3.
Such limited engagements on Broadway are typically reserved for plays with Hollywood stars, not the more costly musicals that need longer runs to recoup their investments. But short runs can make it easier to nab big names amid their busy schedules, as was the case with “Disaster!” — which played Off Broadway with another cast in 2013 — and perhaps inspire urgency in prospective ticket buyers. More important, shows can also use a short Broadway stint as a branding opportunity, helping plans for national (or even international) tours.
“Broadway and the West End are the launching grounds for musicals, commercially,” said Robert Ahrens, the lead producer for “Disaster!” “By playing on Broadway, that opens the rest of the world for us.”
Of course, Mr. Ahrens is not ruling out a longer stay in New York, even though he said the show could recoup its investment in its planned 21-week run. (He declined to say what it will cost to mount.) “In the event demand is there for the show, we’d love to continue it on another Broadway theater.”
Like “Disaster!,” “Motown” is a jukebox musical, tracing the history of the famed record label founded in Detroit by Berry Gordy and featuring hits like “My Girl” and “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” sung by actors playing the label’s stars
The original Broadway production lasted from March 2013 to January 2015, and more than recouped its $18 million capitalization. The hiatus has allowed the creative team to tweak the show, which is now on tour (including shortening the running time by about 10 minutes), something they couldn’t do the last time “Motown” was in New York. The show is slated to run for 18 weeks this time around.
“Changing a show during a Broadway run is like turning around an aircraft carrier,” said Kevin McCollum, the musical’s lead producer.
November 23, 2015
'Motown The Musical' To Broadway: 'I'll Be There' Again
By Mark Kennedy
NEW YORK (AP) -- We've heard it through the grapevine - "Motown the Musical" is coming back to Broadway.
Producer Kevin McCollum says the musical that tells the story of how Motown Records rose and fell and then rose again will return to New York starting July 2016 for an 18-week stand.
McCollum said the show has gotten stronger since opening cold on Broadway two years ago and Motown Records founder and book writer Berry Gordy has sharpened the story.
The show is currently on tour and will play the holidays in Washington, D.C., and early next year hits Virginia, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Tennessee, Ohio and Wisconsin. It plays the Shaftesbury Theatre in London's West End in February.
November 23, 2015
‘Motown’ Musical Locks In Broadway Return for 2016
By Gordon Cox
The musical “Motown” has set a theater and a timeframe for its Broadway return, mapping out an 18-week run that starts in July 2016 at the Nederlander Theater.
When the musical posted its closing notice for January 2015, it was always the plan for the musical to circle back to New York after launching a North American tour and starting up a run in London. “Motown” will make its way back in a retooled production that tamps down on the high running costs that plagued the show’s initial Broadway staging.
“Motown” was a strong box office performer from the moment it began previews in spring 2013, making a habit of posting grosses of more than $1 million a week. Sales softened slightly in subsequent months, but not by much, and it spent the final weeks of its run back in the millionaires’ club. The production recouped just before it bowed out.
The return of “Motown” has the potential to post similarly robust sales, given the timing that takes advantage of summer tourism and the global familiarity with Motown and its music.
Producers Kevin McCollum, Doug Morris and Berry Gordy have yet to lock in the exact date in July that “Motown” will start up again in New York. In the meantime, the West End run of “Motown” kicks off Feb. 11.
November 23, 2015
Crowd-Pleasing ‘Motown The Musical’ Plots Summer ’16 Broadway Return
By Jeremy Gerard
Making good on a promise that seemed unlikely at the time, the producers of the Berry Gordy biotuner Motown The Musical said Monday that the musical will return to Broadway next summer for an 18-week run that will begin in July at the Nederlander Theatre.
A surprise hit of the 2013-2014 season, the show ran at the Nederlander- owned Lunt-Fontanne Theatre and closed on January 18, 2015 after 775 performances. At the time, producers Kevin McCollum, Doug Morris and Gordy promised that the show would be back, an unusual commitment.
The first national tour opened in Chicago in April 2014, grossing $20 million during its 16-week run and ongoing in major markets. A London production is slated to begin performances on February 11, 2016 at the Shaftsbury Theatre.
Directed by Charles Randolph-Wright, Motown The Musical tells the story of the music that came out of Detroit in 1959 and had a profound impact on pop music. through the work developed and promoted by Gordy with Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye and many more.
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